Fire service donates helmets to local community group

Firefighters from Skelmersdale Fire Station are donating their old helmets to Midstream (West Lancs) Ltd, a training and day care facility for adults and young people with learning difficulties and other special needs.

Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service have issued all operational personnel with the new Gallet F1 fire helmet manufactured by MSA, The Safety Company therefore their current firefighting helmets are now redundant.

The crew from Skelmersdale decided to donate their old helmets to the staff and students at Midstream who will use them as a project to turn into hanging basket to display around the centre. The twenty five helmets, previously worn by fire service personnel, will be turned upside and filled with beautiful flowers from the garden centre and will be available for the public to purchase come Spring.

Mark Saxon from Midstream said: “We have worked with the crew from Skelmersdale Fire Station in the past and they offered to donate their old fire helmets to us so we could create a gardening project for the young people who come to the centre. We started to receive a lot of enquiries from visitors to the Garden Centre and café and decided to see if the fire service could donate any more helmets. 25 helmets will provide us with a whole lot of learning for the young people and adults that come to our day centre and maintain our gardens.”

Andy Hamilton, a Firefighter at Skelmersdale Fire Station said: “We are a really community focussed crew here at Skelmersdale and as well as the Kicks, fire cadets and Go4It events we run we’re always looking how else we can become involved in helping our community. We heard about Midstream through xxx and decided we’d love to donate our helmets to the group so they could be used in a positive way for the adults and young people that go there. We’ve met them a few times now and they are a really friendly bunch, we’re looking forward to returning the favour and letting them look around the fire station.”

Midstream is a work activity, training and day care facility on Penrose Place which is committed to providing quality employment and enhanced employment opportunities in a caring environment for young people and adults who have special needs. The Garden Centre and Café is open 9:00-16:30 Monday to Friday.